The Sex In Your Soul Will Damn You To Hell: A Quick Review Of The Children Of God Reissue From Swans

It's impossible for me to be objective about Children of God, the 1987 album from Swans. The record dropped, and entered my sphere of awareness, around the same time I was coming back from a very traumatic period of my life. At 20, and having dropped out of Bible college twice, I was wrestling with a lot of demons, usually ones I'd created for myself. The themes and lyrics of Children of God chilled me and shook me to my soul. At first, having some knowledge of the band's No New York past, and their experimental side, I assumed the lyrics were ironic. And then, briefly, I wondered if they were sincere. And after that I realized that it didn't matter one way or the other, because the sheer power of the recording, coupled with the words of Michael Gira and Jarboe, conjured up meanings that worked no matter what the intention had been. The genius of Children of God, reissued now by Young God Records, is that the material works from so many angles, and continues to scour the soul.

"New Mind" is unforgiving, the wrath of God and all that, with Gira blaring, "The sex in your soul will damn you to Hell!" like he means it. For every number like that one, or the doom-laden "Blind Love", there's another, like "In My Garden", where Jarboe takes over. Her clear, beautiful voice soothes amid the simpler arrangements, the counterpoint to the bludgeoning power of Gira's tracks. In a way, the whole thing is like Double Fantasy for the suicidal. And while there are tracks that are nearly catchy, such as "Like a Drug (Sha La La La)" and the churning title cut, there are others that still seem stark, and relentless in their attack. There's no other album like this, no other record that so successfully and simply blends the industrial with folk forms. While Coil and Throbbing Gristle had ventured into this territory by 1987, Swans combined a seriousness of intent with an awareness of how compositions could be structured. And for all the conventionality of the forms here, the sound, and lyrical content continue to assaul the spirit, and, oddly, uplift it.

This reissue of Children of God is paired with the live album Feel Good Now. Famously recorded on a Walkman, the sound isn't state-of-the-art, but the power is substantial. Most of the tracks from the album proper are worked out here, with some, such as "Beautiful Child", revealing new shades of meaning in the live setting. The bonus disc of this live set is not essential on its own, but when played after Children of God a listener can hear new things in what are relatively straightforward numbers. What's primitive on the album is a tiny bit looser on the stage, for example.

Children of God and Feel Good Now are out now via Young God Records. Vinyl is sold out but back in stock in March, according to the website.